Puppet MastersS


People

The West? Trolling foreign states for over a decade - former MI5 agent

Force Base in Colorado Springs
© Rick WilkingForce Base in Colorado Springs.
Western countries have been running so-called troll farms against other states for a long time and may now be only seeking to expand operations by developing new software, says former MI5 intelligence officer Annie Machon.

The US army is looking for help to access and respond to foreign social media platforms. The software needs to interpret the sentiment within a social media post, and distinguish between negative and positive.

Arabic, Farsi, Russian and Korean are among the languages targeted. It must translate from them, and back to them. The request came from the US Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM).

Bad Guys

The new US National Security Strategy: A different strategy for a different ambition is needed

Trump
I have just read through the new United States National Security Strategy released by President Trump in December 2017. There have been many comments on it most of them focusing on the hostility in the document towards Russia and China but also some question of what the Strategy is. Well, after reading page after page of delusions, bombast, bragging, bullying, lies, fantasies and deep-seated megalomania, you discover that there is no strategy. They don't have one. The only use that document has is as irrefutable evidence that the government of the United States is what they like to call a Joint Criminal Enterprise intent on seizing control of the world for its sole interests. Fortunately, they have, apparently, no idea how they are going to achieve that goal except through war, war, and more war, and if that doesn't work some more war until they collapse from exhaustion, like a mad, rabid dog.

But it's clear who they are afraid of and so show their weakness. China and Russia make them nervous. And, if I were an adviser to the government of Pakistan, I'd say "watch your back, more trouble is coming." Other nations that still have a backbone, the usual list, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, the defiant ones, are like an itch they can't scratch, and the written scowls in this document are meant to make them shake in their boots but only make you laugh. And, oh, for the rest of the world, it's, "Do what you're told, make us money, don't get in the way, and keep your mouth shut, but love us, love us, love us, make sure you love us."

Comment: The assessments and implications of the new NSS have been fairly negative. But even if some of the following analysis (below) sees some constructiveness in it, the likelihood of much changing in the way that the US conducts itself seems unlikely to get better - given how pervasive and pathological the Deep State is. In other words, Amerika is still on the road to self-destruction.


Jet4

Russia Obliterates Jihadis' Drone Storage Site (Jihadis Included) After Failed Attack

Russian missiles
Russian artillery has destroyed a depot storing militants' drones located in the Idlib province.

The Russian Defense Ministry has announced that the group of militants that conducted a massive mortar attack targeting the Russian Hmeymim base in Syria on December 31 were eliminated in the course of a special operation.


Comment: Russia sends US-sponsored terrorists to meet Allah.


Bad Guys

Will Trump send in the cavalry if MBS has to circle wagons? Likely not.

Trump Bin Salman Saudia arabia
© Mark Wilson / dpa for AFPPointing the way to a beautiful friendship? United States President Donald Trump with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office at the White House.
The new relationship between the president and the Saudi crown prince might be showing signs of wear and tear

Whether or not he is a purveyor of "alternative facts", Michael Wolff in Fire and Fury tries to get inside the mind of Donald Trump when working out Washington's new Middle East foreign policy.

In Wolff's words, this is what the United States president was thinking.

"There are basically four players [or at least we can forget everybody else], Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran," he writes in his highly controversial book. "The first three can be united against the fourth.

"And Egypt and Saudi Arabia, given what they want with respect to Iran - and anything else that does not interfere with the United States' interests - will pressure the Palestinians to make a deal," he goes on to say.

Comment: Oil rears its head again as a major factor in Middle East realpolitik.


Snakes in Suits

Senate hearing: US' challenge in Syria is bending Russia to its will

Ripped flag
© AJC.com
US troops will remain in Syria indefinitely in order to counter Iranian influence, a senior State Department official told the Senate. He acknowledged the success of this strategy depends on Russia seeing things the American way.

President Donald Trump "has committed as a matter of strategy that we will not leave Syria," David Satterfield, acting assistant secretary of state and head of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday. The US strategy also includes "stabilizing" the territories in the north and northeast held by the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and developing political structures there "into a model for the rest of Syria."

The US is "not working and will not work with or through the Assad regime. Until there is a credible political process that can lead to a government chosen by the Syrian people-without Assad at its helm - the United States and our allies will withhold reconstruction assistance to regime-held areas," Satterfield said in his prepared remarks, indicating the Trump administration has not fundamentally diverged from its predecessor's understanding of the Syrian situation, focused on 'regime change' in Damascus.

Multiple senators from both sides of the aisle noted that this is a tall order without Russia coming around and abandoning its support for the Syrian government. Moscow's focus has been on "stabilization ... putting an end to the chaos and violence" in Syria, Satterfield said. "The question is at what price, over the long term."


Comment: In other words, how difficult is the US going to make it?


Comment: According to Satterfield, the US will resort to blackmail by withholding reconstruction assistance in order to shape Syria into a dutiful puppet state designed and controlled by Washington DC. - and - Russia was insignificant and should go home. Then again, the US occupied Iraq for 9 years (after destroying it) and still holds several military bases there to this day. Part of that 'operation Iraqi freedom' included the supposed 'reconstruction' of the country, but there was no 'reconstruction', unless by that word you mean reconstruction the profit margins of companies like Haliburton. So let's be honest here, Sattersfield's 'threat' of denying reconstruction funding is laughable, and the Syrians, Russians, Iranians and everyone else in the region know it.


Dollars

'Wasting taxpayers' money' says lawyer Veselnitskaya regarding Trump's dossier, Fusion GPS

Veselnitskaya
© RTRussian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya
Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya has given an exclusive interview to RT, sharing her analysis of the recently-released transcript of Fusion GPS' co-founder's testimony in the US Senate and the infamous "Trump dossier."

The 312-page report recently released by Senator Dianne Feinstein includes the transcript of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson's August interview, which was part of the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation into alleged Russian meddling. Fusion GPS is the political intelligence firm which compiled the infamous Trump dossier.

"The Trump dossier is an anonymous report. Had the people working on not admitted to it publicly, we would have never known the authors of the report. What raises questions is that the sources of these authors are not named. Why did words by unnamed and unverified sources form the basis of an investigation, conducted by at least four different government bodies of the United States?" Veselnitskaya said to RT's Igor Zhdanov.


Comment: See also:
Controversial release of Fusion GPS transcript sparks rift in Senate's Russia probe


Attention

Moscow says they knows who staged attacks on Khmeimim Airbase and it wasn't Turkey

Khmeimim Airbase
© Dmitriy Vinogradov / SputnikRussian Khmeimim Airbase in Syria’s Latakia Province.
Recent attacks on Russia's Khmeimim Airbase in Syria were a provocation aimed at undermining the country's relations with its partners Turkey and Iran and the peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis, Vladimir Putin said.

"Those were provocations aimed at disrupting the earlier agreements, in the first place. Secondly, it was about our relations with our partners - Turkey and Iran. It was also an attempt to destroy those relations," the Russian President said during a meeting with the editors-in-chief of Russian papers and news agencies in Moscow. "We have a perfect understanding of that and will act in solidarity."

"There were provocateurs there, but they were not Turks," Putin said, refuting earlier reports saying the attacks on the Russian airbase were carried out by Turkoman units backed by Ankara. "We know who they are. We know whom and how much they paid for these provocations," Putin said, without naming the organizers of the attacks.

Russian military sites in Syria were targeted in two major attacks in the past two weeks, one on New Year's Eve and another on January 6. The first assault, reportedly carried out by an infiltration squad armed with mortars, resulted in two Russian servicemen being killed and damage to warplanes at Khmeimim Airbase. The second involved 13 drones armed with bomblets, which were all either shot down or forced to land via means of electronic warfare by Russian forces.

Comment: Russia and Turkey have not named who they blame...why not?
See also: 2 Russian military personnel were victims in shelling of Khmeimim air base, Syria


Dollar

First-ever Pentagon audit, cost to soar beyond $900M

Pentagon
© US ArmyThe Pentagon
The Pentagon is prepared to spend more than $900 million on its first ever financial audit. The Defense Department comptroller insists the high price is justified, because accurate figures will strengthen future decision making.

The Pentagon has announced the audit will cost $367 million in Fiscal Year 2018. This will cover fees for independent public accounting firms at a cost of $181 million as well as infrastructure to support the audits costing $186 million. This money will help fund the roughly 1,200 auditors who will support the 24 individual audits that make up the overall project, according to Defense News.

In addition to these costs, the Pentagon's comptroller, David Norquist, says the first steps of the audit are already underway. He estimated that the US Defense Department will also spend around $551 million to fix problems identified by the outside auditors. This will bring the total amount of money spent by the Pentagon to $918 million.


Comment: Really? First ever financial audit? Will there be a 'missing trillions' line item? It's obvious big money has gone into programs for which the public has no knowledge, that will never be divulged and therefore never come to accountability.


Heart - Black

US de facto occupies part of Syria, hinders humanitarian aid

Syrian Camp
© AFP/Al BawabaAl-Rukban camp on Jordan-Syrian border
All limitations on the access of humanitarian convoys to the Rukban refugee camp in the Al-Tanf area of Syria - which is de facto occupied by US forces - must be lifted, Russia's Foreign Ministry has said.

Moscow has firmly emphasized "the need to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Syria in the implementation of humanitarian deliveries and the observance of international humanitarian law."

Rukban camp is located in the 55-kilometer area around Al-Tanf that is "de facto occupied by the US armed forces," with access to the district denied to the country's lawful authorities, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "The training of militants from illegal Syrian armed groups continues at the US strongholds in the area," it added.

Comment: The US is fighting wars 'for the people', right?


Propaganda

US Senate releases junk 'report' claiming Sputnik is 'disinformation'

Sputnik
© Sputnik
Bad news for anyone out there expecting integrity and honesty from Capitol Hill: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's new report, "Putin's Asymmetric Assault on Democracy in Russia and Europe: Implications for US National Security," distorts the truth about Sputnik's editorial practices.

The 206-page report was compiled by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and is prefaced with a letter of transmittal by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD). Obviously there is far too much to cover in a single article, especially since a single paragraph - one focusing on the use of Sputnik as a "disinformation platform" - provides more than enough fodder for discussion.

"Sputnik also reportedly orders its foreign journalists to pursue discredited conspiracy theories," the report claims. A bold statement, to be sure - one that surely would not be made without decisive evidence, right? Right?